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Sunday, December 4, 2016

A fire broke out at a record release party in Oakland, California late on Friday night. Nine were confirmed dead the following morning with the death toll rising to 24 the next day.

The warehouse, known as Ghost Ship, was hosting a party for the release of the newest album by Joel “Golden Donna” Shanahan. It is in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, a mix of commercial and residential buildings nestled together. The structure is one block away from Fire Station No. 13 and at least 55 firefighters spent four hours containing and stopping the fire which began at approximately 11:30 p.m.

Firefighters and police cordoned off the block to spectators. The two-story, mixed-use structure also housed the artist collective Satya Yuga who hosted the show and is being searched by firefighters. Out of approximately 50 attendees, at least 25 were declared missing. Shanahan was among the survivors.

Efforts to rescue partygoers were compounded by the roof caving in during the inferno as well as the stacks of furniture, art pieces, and supplies which turned into obstacles for first responders.

Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf:

The structure is owned by Chor N. Ng, who is also the proprietor of several other buildings in the East Bay. On November 13 Ng was cited by the city for having stacks of garbage in and around the warehouse. Most fatalities were reported to have occurred in the upstairs portion of the building where escape was hampered by unstable stairs and miscellaneous art pieces lying in the way. The building lacked any smoke detectors and sprinklers; fire extinguishers were found outside of the premises.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Between 143 and 152 people have now been hospitalized in the wake of Monday’s train derailment near Lviv, Ukraine, and subsequent phosporous cloud. According to the Ukrainian Healthcare Ministry’s spokesperson, Igor Gerych, 43 of the injured are children, 13 are firemen and three are medical personnel. None are considered to be in mortal danger, yet some cases remain at medium risk level.

Nearly 400 people are involved with the clean-up operations. Among them are military specialists for chemical warfare. The Ukrainian Army alert state was raised to “high readiness” state on Tuesday, when the scale of the accident became clear. 27 medical brigades, 13 consultants and seven specialists are inspecting the surrounding inhabited areas.

Two of the fifteen phosphor containers that were involved in the accident have been raised and put on new transports; nine of them need more work to treat leaking and damaged areas. All containers are to be transported to a more secure location by Saturday.

The situation on the ground appears to be confusing. Political TV channel, Kanal 5, reports that the village closest to the accident, Ozhidovo, is still requesting volunteers to send medicines and water, as they do not have any. Journalists of three TV channels (Inter, Novyj Kanal, ICTV) needed medical care themselves after being in the village.

TV channel, UT-1 reports this evening that the Ukranian President, Viktor Yushchenko, has called an urgent meeting of the National Security Council.

The accident appears to be likely to become a topic of contention in the long-standing rivalry between the President and the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yesterday, the President publicly criticized the government’s work.

Politicization of the disaster is likely to be the main reason behind the extreme differences among the versions of the Ukrainian media. Some declared the accident “ended” a few hours after it occurred, while others are still making alarming reports.

On July 18, the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission reportedly offered EU assistance to the Ukrainian government. The same sources say that Ukraine has not officially requested the help. Without a formal request, EU assistance cannot begin.

On the same date, NATO Spokesman in Brussels, Mr. James Appathurai, is reported by Podrobnosti to have declared that the Alliance is following the situation, and that NATO has not received any request for help from the Ukraine, either.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Yesterday, English football player Wayne Rooney announced retirement from international football via his official website.

In his official statement, Rooney, who left Manchester United to join Everton FC last month, said it was time to “bow out” and wanted to “focus all my energies on helping them [Everton FC] be successful.” Rooney announced his decision just after England’s manager Gareth Southgate called him on phone asking him to play in the upcoming matches against Malta and Slovakia. Rooney said he had “already thought long and hard” to retire from international duties.

In 2003, Rooney made his international debut in a friendly match against Australia at the age of seventeen, becoming then-youngest player to play for England. Since then, Rooney has won 119 international caps with England. Only Peter Shilton has more appearances for the Three Lions. 31-year-old Rooney is England’s all-time top goalscorer netting 53 goals.

Rooney has played in three FIFA World Cup tournaments — 2006, 2010 and 2014. At the continent level, Rooney has played in three UEFA Euro tournaments — in 2004, 2012 and 2016. Rooney did not win any trophies with England in the FIFA as well as Euro tournaments. Last year, England lost to Iceland in the Last 16 of the UEFA Euro 2016 in France. Rooney scored the only goal for England. Iceland defeated the English 2–1. Since 2014, Rooney has been the England’s captain. His last game for England as a captain on November 11 ended in a 3–0 over Scotland.

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Tuesday morning, before the start of classes at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, United States a shooter opened fire on students and faculty. The incident left two dead and seventeen injured. The suspected shooter is in police custody.

State Police Commissioner Richard W. Sanders said the shooter entered the school at 7:57 (CST) in the morning and started shooting with a handgun in a common area of the school prior to the beginning of classes. According to Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin first responders arrived at the scene at 8:06 and were able to secure “a non-violent apprehension” of the suspect.

According to both Bevin and Sanders, a fifteen-year-old girl died at the school and a fifteen-year-old boy died at the hospital. Twelve other people suffered gunshot wounds and five more were injured in the chaos. State police say all of the shooting victims were students ranging from fourteen to eighteen years of age. Governor Bevin added that the suspect is also a fifteen-year-old student at the high school.

Marshall County Attorney Jeff Edwards said that the suspect will likely be tried as an adult and that there was no current indication as of now that anyone specific was targeted. Marshall County High School. Edwards said, “I’ve been doing this for 25 years. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced in my life.”

“I did not see the shooter, but I did see the commons after. It was a disaster. Everyone just dropped their stuff and ran,” said Allissa Hubbard, a student, while speaking to NPR’s local affiliate.

Benton is located in western Kentucky. Marshall County High School had an enrollment of 1374 students last school year, according to state data.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Retired Wikipedian Ryan Jordan, known originally by his pseudonym “Essjay”, put himself up to more scrutiny by suggesting that unethical journalistic practices were used during an interview by Stacy Schiff for The New Yorker magazine.

Essjay made the statement on the user’s Wikipedia page that:

Jordan suggested that Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Schiff, to whom he said that he was a tenured university professor, offered to compensate him for an interview she conducted as research for the magazine article titled “KNOW IT ALL“.

The article, published in the magazine’s July issue last year, was later appended by the editors of the magazine with the disclaimer that, “He was willing to describe his work as a Wikipedia administrator but would not identify himself other than by confirming the biographical details that appeared on his user page. At the time of publication, neither we nor Wikipedia knew Essjay’s real name.”

What is known now, following the quitting of Essjay at Wikipedia, and the resignation at Wikia, is that the individual misrepresented himself.

Blogger and prominent contributor to Wikimedia Foundation projects Andrew Lih contacted Schiff for comment. Her reply was “on the record, succinct and emphatic”:

Wikipedia Signpost writer Michael Snow received a similar response from the Deputy Editor of The New Yorker, Pam McCarthy, stating:

Schiff was referred by the Wikimedia Foundation for an interview for the article to Wikipedia administrator Essjay, a member of Wikipedia’s arbitration committee and generally trusted member of the community.

Lih comments “He has now accused Schiff of unethical conduct, entering into the dangerous domain of defamation and libel and directly affecting the reputation of a working journalist. Is he ready to stand up and be accountable for his story, or will he leave a reckless statement sitting on the Talk page?… Who do we believe — a respected reporter or proven prevaricator Essjay/Ryan Jordan?”

Lih, himself an assistant professor of journalism, suggests Jordan may have tried to “portray himself as a sympathetic character”, not realising that he was suggesting a journalistic wrongdoing.

Before issuing a correction, Schiff’s article about Wikipedia had stated:

Jordan had fabricated a persona which he described on his user page on Wikipedia, presenting himself as a tenured professor at a private US university. After the news broke, EssJay said that the false details were intended to avoid cyberstalking. However, Jordan had used these fictitious credentials to win content debates on Wikipedia. Polls have found that 55% of web users have used fake identities.

When Wikimedia’s Jimmy Wales called for Jordan’s resignation from any position of power, such as his Arbitration Committee placement or administrative privileges, the user decided instead to remove himself from the project completely.

He is no longer an employee of Wikia, Inc., the community wiki company at which he revealed his true identity; corporation co-founder Angela Beesley has told Wikinews that Jordan resigned.

Friday, October 10, 2008

In an attempt to speak with as many candidates as possible during the 2008 Canadian federal election, Wikinews has talked via email with Stefan Jetchick, who is a candidate in Quebec’s Louis-Hébert riding, running under the Christian Heritage Party of Canada (CHP) banner. The CHP is a minor, registered political party running a significant number of candidates across the country, looking to earn its first ever seat in the House of Commons. Jetchick is their only candidate running in the province.

The Quebec riding of Louis-Hébert, in the Capitale-Nationale region, has existed in the House of Commons since 2004. It includes the west section of Quebec City, primarily Sainte-Foy—Sillery and Laurentien’s south end. The Conservative incumbent in the riding is Luc Harvey; also running are Pascal-Pierre Paillé (Bloc Québécois), Denis Blanchette (New Democratic Party), Jean Beaupré (Liberal Party of Canada), and Michelle Fontaine (Green Party of Canada).

The following is an interview with Mr. Jetchick, conducted via email. The interview is published unedited, as sent to Wikinews; this includes Mr. Jetchick’s separation of multipart questions into fragments, and his formatting relating to his applicable experience.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday that it will partner up with the Microsoft-Nortel Innovative communications alliance (ICA) team to sell Unified Communications and VoIP products.

The announcement on Tuesday the 16th of October 2007 includes Dell selling VoIP, data and wireless networking products from Nortel and the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and other unified communications products.

The partnership with both manufacturers should allow Dell to provide a pre-integrated solution.

In March 2007, competitors IBM and Cisco announced they would join in the competition for developing unified communications applications and the development of open technologies around the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) client platform an application programming interfaces (APIs) offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime.

“We want to make it simple for our customers to deploy unified communications so their end users can get access to all their messages in one place – whether its e-mail, phone or mobile device. This will pave the way for more business-ready productivity tools,” said vice president of solutions, Dell Product Group, Rick Becker.

• Customers have four options:
  • Core Office Communication Server 2007 – provides instant messaging and on-premise Microsoft Live Meeting.
  • Office Communication Server: Telephony – enables call routing tracking and management, VoIP gateway and public branch exchange (PBX) integration.
  • Audio and Video Conferencing – allows point-to-point conference, video conference and VoIP audio conference.
  • Exchange Unified Messaging – provides voicemail, e-mail and fax in Microsoft Outlook, and anywhere access of Microsoft Outlook Inbox and Calendar.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Australian Prime Minister, John Howard appeared before the Cole inquiry on Thursday, the first time an Australian Prime Minister has appeared before an inquiry with royal commission powers since 1983.

Unlike his foreign minister Alexander Downer who gave evidence before the inquiry on Tuesday, Mr Howard entered through the front door where he gave a brief address. He told the press that his government is being open about the Iraqi kickback affair. ” just want to make one point and that is that the appearance by me, earlier this week by the Foreign Minister and also by the Trade Minister, demonstrates absolutely how open and transparent and accountable the Government is being in relation to this matter” Mr Howard said to reporters.

Mr Howard was questioned by John Agius, counsel assisting the inquiry. Counsel for AWB, the company at the centre of the scandal did not apply to cross-examine the prime minister.

Terrence Cole, the inquiry’s commissioner received an application from Peter Geary and Micheal Long’s counsel to cross-examine the prime minister but refused it on the grounds that the proposed line of questioning was similar to that of Mr Aguis’ and that there was no evidence that Mr Howard had “ever met with Mr Geary or Mr Long”.

Mr Agius questioned the prime minister about a series of diplomatic cables sent to his office, which raised concerns about AWB’s contracts in Iraq.

Mr Howard told the inquiry that he doesn’t recall reading or being briefed about any of the cables referred to by the inquiry. The inquiry also heard that prior to 2003 there was no system in place to identify which cables had been bought to the prime minister’s attention.

In his statement to the inquiry, Mr Howard said that his office had not received four of the cables mentioned by the inquiry. Under questioning, Mr Howard confirmed this but conceded that it was likely that his staff had read the other 17.

When asked whether there were any guidelines which guided his advisors in deciding which cables should be bought to the prime minister’s attention, Mr Howard replied “No, there weren’t”.

The inquiry heard that the only discussions about which cables which should be bought to Mr Howard’s attention occurred when an advisor changed in very generic terms. Mr Howard told the inquiry that he would tell a new advisor “Well, you’ve got to exercise your own judgment, I can’t possibly read everything, and clearly I want things brought to my attention which are, in your judgment, important and are relevant to issues in front of the government at the time”.

Mr Howard admitted that the government had an interest in Iraq using the United Nations oil for food program for its own financial benefit, but said he did not expect cables dealing with alleged breach of UN sanctions to have been bought to his attention.

The questioning then turned to a statement Mr Howard made to the National Press Club on March 13, 2003, one week prior to the US-led Iraqi occupation. Speaking about Saddam Hussein Mr Howard said “He has cruelly and cynically manipulated the United Nations oil-for-food programme. He’s rorted it to buy weapons to supporthis designs at the expense of the wellbeing of his people”.

Mr Agius asked Mr Howard if his statement was based upon briefngs he had received. Mr Howard told the inquiry that the information was based upon “open source” intelligence stated at addresses by British foreign secretary Jack Straw and the United States state department. Mr Howard said one of his advisors “checked with some cables to confirm that those cables supported the open-source claims and was satisfied that they did”.

Mr Howard denied seeing the cables used by the advisor to support the claims, but believed he would have told her to be sure that everything they were saying can be supported by fact. Mr Howard told the inquiry that he never knew about cables which referred to Hussein rorting the UN Oil for Food program. Mr Howard admitted that at the time his “general knowledge” was that Hussein had breached UN sanctions and was rorting the Oil for Food program.

“My general knowledge at the time and belief was that the program had been rorted, and it was not seriously in dispute. Nobody was arguing it hadn’t been rorted” Mr Howard said.

The prime minister was questioned about an unassessed intelligence report which mentioned a Jordanian trucking company known as “Alia” paying kickbacks to Hussein. In response to this Mr Howard told the inquiry that he could not recall the information being bought to his attention, which was not unusual.